When we were watching the airborne thriller Hijack back in 2023, we rolled our eyes at how many sticky situations Idris Elba’s character got out of by using abilities that seemed superhuman. We also got exhausted by the rapid plot twists that took place on the flight. Yet, the tension was so palpable we kept watching. We see the same vibe happening with a new British airborne thriller now streaming on Hulu.
Opening Shot: A rainy night in Beijing. A man is chased out of a nightclub by a bouncer that tries to punch through the window of the man’s car. Bleeding from a stab wound to his side, the man crashes the car into a barrier, then stumbles away from the scene.
The Gist: At Heathrow, that man, Dr. Matthew Nolan (Richard Armitage), is intercepted by immigration police and held at the airport. Nolan has no idea why he’s being held, and he’s not exactly being cooperative. Eventually, he’s told that he’s responsible for the death of a young girl back in China.
At the same time we see Madeline Delaney (Lesley Sharp), the deputy director of MI5, get a call from one of her Chinese counterparts; Dr. Nolan is on their radar because the girl found in the back of his car after it crashed was the daughter of a general. They want Nolan extradited back to Beijing immediately, threatening a pending nuclear deal if the UK government doesn’t comply. They also want to have four of the people who were with Nolan that night, all of whom were attending a medical conference, back in Beijing for questioning.
DC Hana Li (Jing Lusi) is assigned “babysitting” duty, escorting Nolan back to Beijing. Even though she was born in Hong Kong, she hasn’t been back there or mainland China since she was little, given what happened to her mom there. But her bosses feel she’s best for the job in order to smooth out any “cultural” difficulties. When she tells her father and stepmother at a birthday party for her father, they’re surprised, as is her journalist sister Jess (Jemma Moore) when she’s told about it later.
As he’s being escorted to the waiting flight, Nolan, who has maintained all along that he was framed, makes a break for it. In a public concourse, he yells that he’s being held against his will, and video of the incident goes viral online. Eventually, though, Li and the authorities catch up with him, and he gets on the plane, sitting near 3 of the 4 colleagues returning with him to Beijing.
As the flight takes off and makes its way to China, he continues to say that no one was in his car, and that he was set up. Li doesn’t believe him, of course, until he gives his vegan meal — with his name on it — to another passenger, who subsequently falls gravely ill.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Red Eye, created by Peter A. Dowling, feels eerily similar to the Apple TV+ series Hijack.
Our Take: If you’ve seen the aforementioned Hijack, you have a pretty good idea of how things will go on Red Eye, even if you don’t know all the plot twists and turns. While they’re up in the air, Nolan will slowly convince Li that he’s been framed, while on the ground Li’s sister Jess and MI5’s Delaney will likely expose the larger conspiracy. In the meantime, there are people aboard the plane who are tasked with making sure Nolan doesn’t make it to Beijing.
There are side stories, of course, like Hana Li’s tense relationship with her family, and the mystery of what happened to her mother when they were still in Hong Kong. There is also the checkered relationship Hana has with her half-sister Jess. Delaney’s husband is homebound and can no longer speak or move, and is getting round-the-clock care. How those stories fit into the bigger conspiracy narrative, we’re not sure. But, given that all three characters will be back for a second season, getting that background information will give viewers some context behind their decision making.
Lusi is certainly intense as DC Hana Li, and it’ll be interesting to see just how she changes her opinion of Nolan as the 11 hour flight continues. By the end of the first episode, her mind is already changing given what happened to the poor schnook that Nolan gave his vegan meal to. Armitage is always dependable as some variation or other of an upper-class British everyman, and his anger and bewilderment at his situation is palpable.
It takes most of the first episode to actually get Nolan and Li on the plane, which makes things go a little slowly, but once they’re there things escalate quickly.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Nolan shows Li that his name was on the tray of food that the man who just died had eaten.
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to Thomas Chaanhing as Captain Chen, the pilot, who seems weirdly chipper about the prospect of having to transport a potential killer on his flight.
Most Pilot-y Line: We’re not sure why Nolan and his colleagues that are going to be questioned about him would be on the same flight. That’s one of the many plot contrivances that you just have to accept with a show like this, because it’s being done to build drama.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Even though we know that Red Eye is going to have some ridiculous plot turns, with Nolan and Li doing things that make them look like superheroes instead of regular Brits, the performances of the four main characters have us excited to see where this story goes next.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.